PCOS Message Board - View Single Post

pal · 05-13-2009, 10:01 AM

I was finally, after years of emotional ups and downs, diagnosed as bipolar after I had two daughters. I'm very grateful for the diagnosis and the medicine that really seems to help me. Both the PCOS diagnosis and the bi-polar makes me have huge concerns for my children, especially now that they are into puberty. (I watch them like a - mother!- hawk for any signs that may point to either condition.)

The girls' doctors are also informed, and they have been good about reassuring me that there is so much better treatment now for both conditions, much improved from what little was available for me when I went through puberty when nothing was done to help me. That is a big help to me. I will do anything possible to prevent them from going through the kind of suffering I went though...that's part of my job as a mother.

But I don't feel "guilty" that I may have passed this on to them. Rather, I'm glad that it is finally out in the open and that help is available. I'm sure my mother, aunt, brother and some cousins are also bipolar, but are not being treated for it, and everyone suffers from the consequences. You will be a much better mother, and have more empathy and be able to help your children if you have your own medical condition under control.

Of my two daughters, I'm pretty sure the younger one will have both PCOS and bi-polar problems at some point in her life...a mother can "just tell"...my DD has had both physical and emotional signs from a very young age. So I try to be an example to her, stay calm when she gets over emotional, lead a healthy life style, etc.

Most of all, I know from personal experience that you can control both of these conditions and lead a happy, normal life. That's the message I want to convey to her and to you!